Grass Selection in Hawaii

[Anthony_Nysse]

Over the last 2 weeks, the PGA Tour has been playing in Hawaii. Last week, they played on bermudagrass with tifeagle greens. This week they appear to be playing on tifdwaft greens. After viewing the monthly averages for Hawaii, has anyone tried to have cool season grasses? The warmest months have 88 for highs, not any different than that of RTJ International, Kinloch or Congressional. In fact, I'm guessing that they could maintain an all cool season golf course if there was a demand. Is that what it is-no demand for those surfaces? I'd guess that overseeding is NEVER a thought because of the consistant temperature of 85 for highs and 75 for lows.

Tony Nysse
Pine Tree GC
Boynton Beach, FL

[Tom_Doak]

Tony:

I know the course in the hills in Lanai has bent greens and I think even bent fairways ... it's often cool and foggy up there.

I think David Kidd's Nanea (which is at about 1,000 feet) might have bent greens also.  But I don't think any of the courses along the coast have tried it.  As you say, they probably don't see a need for it, as long as everybody else in Hawaii is on board.

P.S.  I think they've also got some issues in Hawaii with agricultural restrictions on which grasses can be brought in.  Doubt that prevents bentgrass, but it might have put a lid on some of the newer bermudas.

[mike_beene]

There is or at least was a course a thousand or so feet above the Kona airport that had nice bent.

[Richard Choi]

The course that Tom referring to is Experience at Koele. The climate at the course is equivalent to Pacific Northwest, wet and cool. The course is surrounded by evergreens and the entire course is planted with bentgrass. Very weird experience for Hawaii.

It would be kind of interesting to find out why a bent grass would not work in Hawaii.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Tony I have zero experience there but would think the humidy at the coast would make these grasses tough to grow and oddly not sure how one draws Virginia for comparison. I would think where you are now would be better.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Tony I have zero experience there but would think the humidy at the coast would make these grasses tough to grow and oddly not sure how one draws Virginia for comparison. I would think where you are now would be better.

Tiger,
  I only include Virginia in the conversation because the summers at the course that I mentioned can be warm and sticky like Hawaii.

[Jim Haley]

While working on Nanea the subject of cool season grasses came up, the information we recieved was that cool season grasses would work for a time but that there is not enough "shut down time" for the plant and that long term it would not work.

Jim

[Scott_Burroughs]

The Kona coast of the Big Island is actually a fairly dry climate (semi-arid might be the correct term), whereas the east side (where Hilo is) of the island is the rainy side.  Having Bermuda on the Kona-side courses makes more sense due to the less water needed to keep it alive.  I seem to recall that the Fazio course there, Kuki'o, has paspalum for at least the fairways/rough.

Other islands with dry/wet sides include Oahu (east side is rainy, Honolulu side is dry) and Kaua'i, where the Princeville side (north) is wet and the south side (Poipu) is dry.

[Joe Hancock]

Tony,

I would also wonder how the soil temperatures would affect the decision to try cool season grasses. I imagine the soil stays fairly constant, but fairly warm for cool season turf.

Joe

[Tim Nugent]

We did Bent greens at Ko'olau with bermuda everything else.  We were worried about bermuda encrouchment.  We did one tee in bent (#11/#18) because it was surrounded by rock walls.  I think Sean Houlihan GCSAA might have converted more tee to bent due to recovery vs bermuda in the dorment winter months (and did some bunkers in Paspalum).  This is on the windward side of O'ahu and gets alot of rainfall.  Also the steep mountain to the South and West limit the hot afternoon sun and can cause a morning shower (1/2 hr).
On the Big Island (perhaps the course mentioned above Kona Airport) at Makalei we also did Bent greens and tried Fescues for the outter roughs as this was an arid site but was between 1,200 & 1,800 feet and was much cooler than down along the coast.  It also didn't get the strong winds you get down along the coast which I would expect to really dry bent out.

As others have stated, there are many micro-climates inot only amongst the various islands but with-in the individual islands themselves and each will dictate what can and can't be done plus you have to factor in water quality and what the soil characteristics are.  It really isn't one stop shopping.

[Russell Lo]

I believe Waimea CC on the Big Island is at elevation similar to Makalei and is one of the few with Bent Grass greens. I thought Nanea was Bermuda (tifeagle) as it didn't seem like Bent.

Jim Nugent, Ko'olau used to be a blast putting on the Bent grass greens, but I thought it was a precipitation problem more than a het problem that caused them to change the greens.

More courses are chaning to Seashore paspalum which is great to putt on if maintained well, Ko Olina, Ernie Els' Hoakalei and Klipper on Marine on Kaneohe Marine base, however when the rough starts getting gnarly like at Coral Creek it is miserable to play out of.

[mike_beene]

I am not sure which 1200 foot big island course I am thinking about.It had a temporary clubhouse 10 years ago and an uphill first hole(but the plan was for the permanent clubhouse to be up in the course and change the order of holes.) I remember watching a big JAL jet land at the airport down below.It was pretty close to the four seasons.

[Joel_Stewart]

When I was in Kauai a few months ago, RTJ2 was rebuilding the Makai course with all paspalum.  They also had one green on the Prince course as paspalum and seemed happy with the results.  I would expect the Prince to undergo a complete redo in grass over the next few years.

Hawaii can run into serious drought conditions so there is a movement to reduce water usage.

[Greg Tallman]

We have flirted with the idea here in Cabo just for the sake of being unique but that seems a silly flirtation these days.

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